What does biodiversity mean?

Definitions for biodiversity
ˌbaɪ oʊ dɪˈvɜr sɪ ti, -daɪ-bio·di·ver·si·ty

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word biodiversity.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. biodiversitynoun

    the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat (or in the world as a whole)

    "a high level of biodiversity is desirable"

Wiktionary

  1. biodiversitynoun

    the diversity (number and variety of species) of plant and animal life within a region

Wikipedia

  1. Biodiversity

    Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (genetic variability), species (species diversity), and ecosystem (ecosystem diversity) level.Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth; it is usually greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10% of earth's surface and contain about 90% of the world's species. Marine biodiversity is usually higher along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future as a primary result of deforestation. It encompasses the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. More than 99.9% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86% have not yet been described. The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion Tonnes. In comparison, the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as four trillion tons of carbon. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all organisms living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years. The earliest undisputed evidence of life dates at least from 3.7 billion years ago, during the Eoarchean era after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean eon. There are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, "remains of biotic life" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth...then it could be common in the universe."Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic aeon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion—a period during which the majority of multicellular phyla first appeared. The next 400 million years included repeated, massive biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events. In the Carboniferous, rainforest collapse led to a great loss of plant and animal life. The Permian–Triassic extinction event, 251 million years ago, was the worst; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years. The most recent, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, occurred 65 million years ago and has often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity named the Holocene extinction, and often referred to as the sixth mass extinction. The reduction is caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction. Conversely, biodiversity positively impacts human health in many ways, although a few negative effects are studied.

ChatGPT

  1. biodiversity

    Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. It includes the variety of all forms of life, including different plants, animals, microorganisms, the genetic information they contain and the ecosystems they form. It is typically measured in terms of the richness, evenness, or abundance of species and ecosystems present in a particular area. Biodiversity supports multiple ecosystem functions and services, including food and water supply, pollination of plants, control of pests and diseases, and regulation of climate.

Wikidata

  1. Biodiversity

    Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be highest at low latitudes near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest and in mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time but will be likely to slow in the future. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. One estimate is that

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Biodiversity

    The variety of all native living organisms and their various forms and interrelationships.

Editors Contribution

  1. biodiversity

    The variety of animal, plant and other living organisms that exist at a specific habitat.

    Biodiversity is vital for the evolution of humanity, animal and plant kingdoms and other living organisms.


    Submitted by MaryC on February 20, 2020  

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of biodiversity in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of biodiversity in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of biodiversity in a Sentence

  1. Gregory Asner:

    There are many issues with losing these forests, it isn’t about biodiversity but about water services, carbon sequestration, fire flammability … We can’t stop a drought but the measurements we are making today, the maps we are making today are a key way forward for managers to adjust how they manage these forests.

  2. Clifton Nunnally:

    Human impacts on the environment never really go away. Loss of biodiversity can mean one species or thousands of individuals, we can't allow this heavily impacted disaster site to slip from our collective memory and further study is needed to shed light on the long-term impacts that oil spills have on fragile deep-sea ecosystems.

  3. António Guterres:

    The climate alarm bells are also ringing at fever pitch, the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was a code red for humanity. We see the warning signs in every continent and region -- scorching temperatures, shocking biodiversity loss, polluted air, water and natural spaces.

  4. Patrick Donnelly:

    On top of an endangered buckwheat isn't the right place, biodiversity is what gives us clean air to breath and clean water to drink and it's what puts food on our plates.

  5. Emmanuel Faber:

    We need your support for shifting agricultural subsidies from killing life into supporting biodiversity.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

biodiversity#1#9725#10000

Translations for biodiversity

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"biodiversity." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/biodiversity>.

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